Ale, Beer, Stout appreciation

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/2/4795602/picobrew-zymatic-is-the-nespresso-of-beer-brewing

Just spent a fairly large sum on an nice all grain home brew setup. Should arrive this week. First up will be a double citra IPA (Kernel clone from here).
Been reading Papazian's 'Joy of Home Brewing' and Palmer's 'How to Brew' for a while now and think I've just about got the concept of brewing but still feel a little overwhelmed!

Nice one! Just dive in, it will likely turn out great.
My advice fwiw, brew something lower gravity to start with. Less tricky variables, no need to mess about with invert sugar and a huge hop bill, until you get to know your kit and get it dialled in.
I have found the homebrew forum to be really helpful too
Let us know how you get on!

Tried some Weird Beard beer (at the Hops & Glory)
Not bad at all. They claim as their usp that they are not based in Easy London but in West. The only microbrewery in Ealing/Hanwell? Is this true?
(While the beer is good their website is annoying as are plaited beards)

What? Where? OMG OMG OMG etc

Oh I know these guys. I tried their stuff at the London Craft Beer fest.

I tried the Weird Beard Hit the lights on friday night, I did not care for it.

hit the lights is definitely not one of their best beers

I should hope not, I considered throwing it away... that's how much I didn't like it.

Considered...

Fade to Black was my favourite by them.

HIT THE LIGHTS METALLICA LYRICS - YouTube

Metallica - Fade To Black (HD) - YouTube

I still want to find them and attempt to live in the brewery like Smeagol hiding in a corner, seeking 'precious'.

"**The Great British Hop **
Three decades ago Miles Warde worked on a hop farm in Herefordshire. Split shifts, tractors with lights, and when you weren't sleeping you'd be in the pub. Today that farm is now a vineyard, so the presenter began wondering what had happened to the great British hop.

The first thing he discovered is that there are only sixty hop farmers left."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03cd950

was on the radio whilst I was having lunch, might interest some of you :)

Currently based in Taiwan, where there is a shortage of good beers. I'm off to Kyoto JP at the end of the month, could any one share experience of good japanese bottled IPA's? Want to bring some back with me ..

^^ I listened to that on Sunday: New World hops.... fuuuu/

Currently based in Taiwan, where there is a shortage of good beers.

Is it still possible to buy cans of Taiwan Beer from street vending machines pretty much everywhere out there?

This is a bit weak. Gave no head. Flavour down on the Long Man stuff below.

This was nice.

Hitochino Nest do a nice pale ale, it has a cool owl graphic on the label and cap

Drinking hobgoblin 440ml cans which are cheap in morrisons,

tastes pretty lame to me :(
Thinner than what I was hoping from a ruby ale, and quite bitter

it's from a can..

Tried this the other day
http://www.yourround.co.uk/ViewImage.aspx?TableName=Drinks&IdColumn=DrinkID&Value=900000015399&FieldName=DrinkLogo&ImageType=MobileBeerMicrositeDrinkLogo
It tastes like vanilla cheesecake... lovely but can't imagine having too many

Just put together this Flickr set of a few of the brews I've had since landing in LA in 2012. By no means an exhaustive list.

awesome!

Good idea. I might need to start doing that.

Cheers. Of what I've had so far, the breweries that produce the most consistently good beers are Deschutes, Great Divide and Shiner.

I'm off to the Oxford Beer Festival tonight. Should be good!

http://oxfordcamra.org.uk/festival2013.php

Drinking this Perla honey beer last night. Goes down easy (ooh err) as it's very sweet (if you're into that kind of thing).

the dove street inn, ipswich, oh my god, go!